Veteran's Day

I returned home from too many different time zones, too many flights and people and germs, to be felled by a bad coldfrom

which I am now on the mend.

It is a gorgeous time of year. Cambridge escaped the snowstorm that hit western Massachusetts, and this morning I took this snapshot in my yard

...but soon enough the yard will be leafless and bleak.

The new Gooney Bird book (GOONEY BIRD ON THE MAP) is officially out and I notice that the back flap, talking about me and the illustrator, mentions that we share custody of a wooden rooster. Now there is a cryptic description! And here is the rooster:

Its history goes back a long way. Middy, my illustrator friend, had seen the carved rooster in an art gallery, and liked it, but didn't buy it. I later secretly bought it for her for her birthday. So it lived at my house until the birthday came, then was transferred to Middy's...shown here. So we don't really share it any more, but i wish we did. I love that rooster as much as she does.

On Wednesday I went to dinner with my editor, Margaret, and the head of the department, Betsy, to celebrate officially announcement of the upcoming fourth book in THE GIVER Trilogy (in 2012 to become The Giver Quartet)...its title, now decided, to be SON.Many decisions yet to be made about a jacket, etc. Often people are surprised to find that things take such along time...this is a year in advance of its publication.

I'm remembering that Anastasia Krupnik once asked her father how long it takes to make a book, and he replied that his last bok of poetry had taken about nine months. "Nine months! That's a long time!" Anastasia replied. "You could get a baby in nine months, for pete's sake!"

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It is Veteran's Day. My great grandfather was a Union officer captured and taken prisoner in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In 1945 My father was a US Army officer on the island of Tinian, the island where the atomic bomb was loaded into a plane. In 1945 Martin was a young infantryman on Okinawa. In 1991 my son was an Air Force fighter pilot flying out of Saudi Arabia over the burning oil in the Persian Gulf; he wrote me: "What a tragedy is taking place here."

Hello my name is Katie and i am creating a website on your book Number the stars. this has been one of my favorite book since 5th grade. i would really appreciate it if you could write me back or give me an email address. My teacher is really excited that i found your site so please write me back.
Sincerely Katie